Tuesday, October 16

Avoiding siloed development is a tricky business. It’s so easy for agile teams to fall into the rut in which testers only do traditional testing activities, and programmers strictly do their time-worn coding activities. Rob Sabourin shares a number of examples of how testing skills can be applied to a wide variety of activities in an agile project. Testers are among the most skilled team members in story grooming, elicitation, and exploration. Risk analysis in self-organized agile teams empowers testers to drive design decisions. A tester’s affinity analysis skills help clear the way for...

To be most effective, those in testing roles (whether Agile or traditional) must develop and use metrics to help the team direct the testing effort and help the team make informed recommendations about the software’s release readiness and associated risks. Because one important testing activity is to “measure” the quality of the software, teams must measure the results of both the development and testing processes. Collecting, analyzing, and using metrics are complicated because many developers and testers are concerned that the metrics will be used against them. Join Mike Sowers as he...

Leading agile teams and organizations is much different than leading more traditional software development efforts. The emphasis on self-directed teams shifts a leader's role from that of a line manager who tells everybody what to do, to a mentor, facilitator, coach, and servant leader. This tutorial discusses how to effectively lead self-directed teams either as a ScrumMaster or staff manager. Jeff Payne also addresses how management roles are defined in agile, as well as various organizational structures that support agile leadership. He will also give you practical tips and techniques...

Cognitive Adaptive Testing means harnessing the power of analytics and autonomics in support of continuous delivery. The emergence of cognitive, adaptive testing is driven by trends towards omnichannel content delivery, utilization of big data and improved customer experience. Our software/systems need to be extremely responsive to customer sentiment, work across a variety of devices, be resilient in the face of unpredictable failure modes, and process vast amounts of unstructured data. Such scenarios put extreme pressure on IT systems and processes to be not only more responsive but...

Anyone who has ever attempted to estimate software testing effort realizes just how difficult the task can be. The number of factors that can affect the estimate is virtually unlimited. The keys to good estimates are understanding the primary variables, comparing them to known standards, and normalizing the estimates based on their differences. This is easy to say but difficult to accomplish because estimates are frequently required even when we know very little about the project—and what we do know is constantly changing. Throw in a healthy dose of politics and a bit of wishful thinking,...

As we face increased demands for speed, change and technical excellence—the pressure, and the need for automating aspects of testing increases. But, successful test automation is not just about selecting and implementing tools and a technical infrastructure. People ensure the success or failure of the automation project; they must drive the project. Join Isabel Evans as she shows you how to make your test automation projects people-driven, by focusing on two vital but often neglected elements of any automation project: attitudes towards automation and experiences of automation. What...

Wednesday, October 17

Most fairy tales start out with a scary premise and move to a happy ending. Lately, we have heard lots of scary stories about the future of testing. As machine learning and artificial intelligence continue to gain prominence, we see even more concerns about the tester’s career. With the help of a famous animation team, Jennifer and Janna will take you through a wild animated journey from what it was like in the early days of software to where we are today. We’ll explore the evolution of the testing profession, as well as what it will become in the future. As this story moves from...

In an increasingly connected world, protection from security vulnerabilities and threats is essential. Yet providing that protection can be complex to understand, especially with changes in digital technology, consumer demands, and how social media influences consumer shopping and payment decisions. Consumer demands for a personalized experience, together with regulatory and industry initiatives, force innovation, openness, and collaboration in the payment industry, while new models, new digital ecosystems, and cross-border payments are being transformed by blockchain technology....

Testers make difficult decisions with minimal information in turbulent times on critical projects. Independent consultant, Fiona Charles, suggests that testers must learn to draw a line in the decision-making process between trained intuition and careless assumption. In this presentation, Fiona shares her experience with helping testers train their instincts leading to better decision making. Skilled practitioners naturally make some decisions purely on instinct. For example, an expert medical doctor makes a dazzlingly accurate diagnosis in a complex case that baffles other physicians...

Testing dashboards can give stakeholders the false impression that projects are under control. But are they really? As a tester, you can see a counter indicating a high percentage of passing tests but know that you may still have critical failures in the product. Alexandre Bauduin will share his experience with test reporting, which goes beyond tallying bugs, counting test cases, and computing a variety of coverage measures. Alexandre will demonstrate how teams can report meaningfully on whether we are testing the right thing well. He will share different reporting strategies in...

In the age of agile and DevOps, many organizations are eliminating the role of test manager. Fiona Charles, a people- and project-focused leadership consultant, reviews what this means for testing and test leadership. Fiona shares her experience working with skilled test leads in adapting and inventing test methodologies and selecting techniques to fit evolving organizational frameworks, new technologies, and increasingly streamlined software delivery methods. Fiona has helped develop test coaches and mentors who inspire testers to grow their skills, and with her guidance, many agile test...

Thursday, October 18

Are you confronted with automating tests of large, complex systems? Are there more conditions to test than you can do in a lifetime? Are auditors demanding compliance to a never-ending collection of regulations? Do stakeholders want slick dashboards tracking abstract key process indicators? Join Alexandre Bauduin as he shares his experience leading the complex system testing challenges of a real-time Boeing 777 Flight Simulator. Alexandre will outline how he overcame the many challenges faced by combining his skills in test design and his expertise as an airline pilot, including...

Substantial confusion exists about the roles and responsibilities of test management when using an agile software development process. Agile seeks to streamline project management and leadership under the role of a ScrumMaster, but what does this mean for test managers? How do they stay involved in the process? What role do they fill? Is it possible that test managers are no longer needed? Join Jeffery Payne for a collaborative dialogue to discuss the pros and cons of a variety of test management models he has seen used by companies that have adopted agile. Learn how to best position...

Have you ever had lots of ideas to improve software quality, but your project team seemed less than responsive? Does your team struggle to work well together? Do you already have lots of actions to take from the conference and you don’t know how these changes will be received? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then this session is for you. Join Julie Gardiner as she shares ways of getting your message across and how to play to people’s strengths to make your team work more efficiently and effectively. She will demonstrate an effective communication style model and explain why...

Hiring trained talent has been a challenge for IT organizations for several years now. How do you find a steady source of qualified candidates for entry-level QA and QE positions, especially considering colleges and universities don't include a software quality assurance curriculum? Enter the returning veteran! Our veterans often find the search for jobs a daunting challenge, but Brenda Hall discovered just how well veterans are suited for work in software quality. She will share her insights into solving two challenges—our companies needing talent, and returning veterans needing...

Does it feel like you spend half of every sprint fixing failing automated functional tests? Are programmers unwilling to work with automation code? Is test automation a maintenance nightmare? There is a better way. The Page Object Model (POM) is a powerful design pattern for building test automation. A lack of design discipline can lead to test automation code that is buggy, brittle, and almost impossible to maintain. Focusing on the fundamentals of the POM pattern, combined with some disciplined behavior-driven practices, leads to high-quality, maintainable automation code, saving teams...

Friday, October 19

Bring your biggest challenges to this session and tap the wisdom of others. In this immersive session, you will tackle some of the most widely mentioned challenges brought to light from the group. We will use experiential techniques to unlearn outdated mental models, uncover assumptions and break through obstacles with new ideas. Whether it’s a software testing conundrum, a project setback, a management blocker, a group or team dysfunction or an interpersonal hurdle, all of these can slow our progress and reduce our effectiveness. When we hunt for options, we all have blind spots and biases...

As co-creator of the internationally viral campaign #ItWasNeverADress, Tania Katan knows the power of sneaking creativity into spaces where it belongs but isn’t always a priority in order to start a creative revolution! She will share uniquely developed exercises for flexing your creative muscles, funny stories from the frontlines of a productive disruptor and enough inspirational shouting to make your high school soccer coach crack a smile. You will leave this talk with tools for embracing your inner cape crusader and engaging in your everyday work and life with more gusto, curiosity,...

Let’s discuss and define the most important career superpowers for women. Hear what industry professionals, leaders, and idea disruptors think the important career superpowers are for women in 2018 and going forward.

Building the right personal brand is one of the critical success factors in today’s workplace. Organizations develop a brand and image, but not many individuals think about their personal brand and how it can affect their career. As we interact with people, we want to influence them to support our efforts—approving projects, budgets, and funding; supporting our next career move; or recommending us for that promotion or raise we want. As a professional, it is critical to understand how you are being perceived by your “target audience.” During this interactive session...